Naruto Uzumaki the son of Minato Namikaze
by Naruhinaofleaf
Summary: Naruto has returned from his training trip, stronger n smarter than ever but always his old self. see how Naruto fights the problems in his life.
1. Chapter 1

Naruto vs Jiraiya

Naruto and Jiraiya were standing on clear ground and surrounded by forest.

" Naruto this will be the last time we'll spar and tomorrow we leave for the village. I want to see your growth, so don't hold back, come at me with intent ot kill. Understood ?" Jiraiya said to Naruto with serious look.

"okay pervy sage! But you'll regret it" Naruto said with smile of confidence.

"don't get cocky Naruto. This time I'm not going to hold back anything!" Jiraiya said to Naruto's comment.

Over the past years Naruto has changed a lot. He had his regular jumpsuit on (same as that shown in shippuden) but he always kept his zipper open revealing his mesh shirt, and had a black t-shirt beneath the mesh. He was too handsome and any girl would die for a single date with him, but the konoha's knucklehead ninja had only one girl in eye and she was Sakura Haruno but things have changed over past 2 and a half years. Training for this much time with great sage Jiraiya, made him smarter and stronger, but at the same time he was the same dumbass 2 n half years ago.

"Well then let's start!" Said Jiraiya "come at me Naruto, with all you have got!"

Naruto was standing calmly without any fear of fighting great toad sage Jiraiya.

After several hours of fighting, Naruto and Jiraiya were standing in a clearing or rather a crater created by their battle.

"You took that first blow of my Rasengan on purpose, am I right?" Jiraiya asked because just when the fighting began, he was able to hit Naruto with Rasengan and this was the first time in several months.

Flashback ...

Rasengan blew Naruto across field, several meters into the forest crashing into 4 to 5 tree's. Naruto spat blood but stood up to continue the fight.

Flashback end...

"What makes you say that?" Naruto asked hiding the truth.

"Well you were little distracted and I know you. Last time when I was about to hit you with Rasengan, you just grabbed my hand and hurled me like it was nothing. Naruto you are strong but if you keep on taking the blows like that from enemies, you'll fall before them. Look at yourself after you took the blow, your fighting got sloppy" Jiraiya said

"I understand but I was kind of distracted and moreover I just wanted to see if I can take a blow of Rasengan or not-" Naruto tried to explain but Jiraiya interrupted him.

"Naruto you're strong, no human can take a blow from Rasengan and survive let alone fight. To be frank even I wouldn't be able to continue to fight if I were to be hit by it. But from now on concentrate, or you'll die even if you have nine tails healing abilities" Jiraiya said as he stood still without any movements.

"Yikes!" Naruto squealed. Jiraiya was standing still, not even moving by inch "hey pervy sage what are you doing?" Asked Naruto getting little nervous.

Jiraiya opened his eyes to reveal horizontal slits with his body showing some toad features.

"Could it be that you are-"

"Yes I'm using sage mode"

"Looks like I have to use whatever I hav, to beat you" Naruto said getting serious and started forming hands signs and with that he broke the seal.

He sealed his chakra within himself, just because he learned this new seal without Jiraiya's help, he wanted to check it. He sealed it just after his chakra control training got over which was few months ago.

Suddenly there was a great outburst of chakra from Naruto covering him in blue aura. It was so strong that it was pushing everything away from him, small stones, fallen trees were blown away. Naruto was panting heavily before but after releasing seal he got to his normal self, his breathing was normal.

"So you released it?"

"Nope! This time I broke it, permanently.." Naruto said with a smile full of confidence.

"Then common lets finish this!" Said Jiraiya and charged forward.

After an hour or so..

Naruto's body was lying on the ground unconscious with the whole forest destroyed beyond recognition and Jiraiya was standing beside him panting.

"He is too strong.. *pant*.. even in sage mode..*pant*.. he pushed me to this..*pant*"

Jiraiya ran out of his sage mode just in 30 min. Naruto fought Jiraiya in his sage mode for that long and even after that he continued until he fell to his knees.

Next day early morning..

"common Naruto wakeup we need to leave now!"Jiraiya said packing all their belongings.

"Five minutes more pervy sage" Naruto pleaded.

"I thought you would want to eat some ramen after waiting this long! Well then I'll have it all" Jiraiya taunted Naruto.

Hearing the name of ramen Naruto shot out of the bed "where? Where? " and started searching for ramen and all he got was empty hotel room with a packed bag which belonged to him.

"Hahaha.. little idiot" Jiraiya started laughing.

"Pervy sage! why you!"

"Common Naruto we have to leave for village and we are leaving now!" Jiraiya said and got up to take a leave.

At the village gates ...

Naruto and Jiraiya entered the village gates and were walking towards the Hokage tower, on their way Naruto ran up on a vertical pole.

"Haha.. he's certainly cheerful today. Isn't he.." Jiraiya said smiling at blonde kid.

"Alright.. " Naruto said spreading his hands and feeling breeze "I MISSED THIS PLACE" Naruto shouted"IT HASN'T CHANGED A BIT" then suddenly Naruto noticed something that's been changed "eh?!" He noticed Tsunade's face carved on Hokage mountain. "Heheh.. So they have added Tsunade's old mug to the mountain! Ha!"

"You have grown a lot, haven't you.. Naruto!" A voice came from behind Naruto, he turned to see the person who was none other than Kakashi Hatake, sitting on a roof of a building "yo" Kakashi waved Naruto.

"Kakashi sensei!" Naruto was smiling at Kakashi, jumping towards him Naruto said " hahaha you haven't changed at all!"

Naruto landed next to him "wait, oh yeah!" Naruto's hand went into his pouch to bring out something "hey! Hey! I have a gift for you Kakashi sensei!"

"Whaaat!" Kakashi was astound to see Naruto take something out "you.. h-how .. th..this is.."

Naruto was holding out a book for Kakashi in his hand and it read make out tactics.

"This is the latest in icha icha series after 3 years!"

"It's really boring, but you'll still like it.. I think" Naruto said handing book to Kakashi

'Idiot.. a kid like you wouldn't understand the beauty of that book.. it's still an unreleased and rare item too..' Jiraiya frowned at his apprentice's comment.

Both of them jumped next to Jiraiya and suddenly Naruto started running ahead "right! next stop Ichiraku ramen!"

"As promised I'll leave Naruto back into your capable hands" Jiraiya looked at Naruto "I fear Akatsuki are growing impatient.. they may make an attempt on Naruto soon.. I'm going ahead to gather information!"

"Ahhh!" Naruto shouted "Sa..Sakura ? Granny Tsunade ?" Naruto asked in surprise.

"Eh? Naruto?" Sakura was shocked to see him.

After a while of talk with others one genin came out of nowhere.

"Big brother Naruto SEXY JUTSU " Shouted Konohamaru and and sexy naked woman appeared with cloud around get private parts.

"Oh ho ho!" Jiraiya was staring at her with excitement.

"How was that? A real drool of jutsu, wasn't it?"asked Konohamaru returning back to normal.

"Hehehe, Konohamaru I'm sorry but I'm not a kid anymore and from now on you shouldn't use it either" Naruto said smiling.

'So.. Naruto hasn't just matured in appearance.. you really have become amazing... Naruto' Sakura thought looking at Naruto with a smile.

"So.. Naruto, how do I look? do I look more like a women, now?" Sakura asked in naughty tone.

"You haven't changed at all Sakura!" Naruto said with a smile "you look the same as before-"

Before Naruto could continue Sakura got angry and threw a punch at Naruto shouting "YOU IDIOT". It was a normal punch like always.

"Hn..?!" Sakura was shocked to see that there was nobody, in fact everybody was shocked except for toad sage.

"Don't let your enemies get behind you" Naruto said with a smile "that's the first lesson Kakashi sensei taught us, didn't he.."

"Don't get cocky Naruto, you were able to do it cause I wasn't on my guard.. hn .." Sakura scoffed off Naruto.

"That's enough! Kakashi.." Tsunade said signaling Kakashi.

He right away closed his book and started "it's been a while, hasn't it? From now on two of you will come with me on team related missions. It's different than before, no more teacher and student, from now on we are equals as leaf shinobi!"

After a while Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura went to the training ground for their test and Jiraiya went with Tsunade to the Hokage tower.

"Kakashi will fill in with the info about their growth.." said Tsunade settling down in her cabin.

"Hn.." Jiraiya smiled knowing the truth about Naruto "Tsunade there's something you must hear about Naruto and my trip"

"And what that might be?" Tsunade asked in suspicion

"Akatsuki are making their move on Naruto, but you must not pull Naruto out of any missions that include Akatsuki, on the other hand I personally suggest you to send him on those which include them!" Jiraiya said in a serious tone.


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto's growth..

"Are you kidding me! How could you possibly think I would s-" Jiraiya cutoff Tsunade and continued "he's no more a kid you used to know, he's strong now."

"But Jiraiya we are talking about Akatsuki they are S ranked criminals. Last time when Itachi and his partner came to the village they took down three jounins like they were nothing" Tsunade tried to make her point.

"Tsunade whatever the report Kakashi may submit about Naruto, know one thing he is strong" Jiraiya said in a serious tone "and one more thing. Two months ago we came across Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki, and Naruto went toe to toe with Kisame"

"What?!" Tsunade was shocked to hear this "h..how's t..this possible .."

"Yesterday I had a spar with him and he overpowered me. I had to use my sage mode to defeat him and even in my sage mode he held battle for an hour or so.."

"Wh..What? A..are yo..u serious?" 'To take on Jiraiya in his sage mode, that's..' "ok so how strong Naruto is?" Tsunade asked Jiraiya with curiosity.

"Well to be frank there is no person alive in this village to defeat Naruto, that includes you too" Jiraiya said proudly.

"What about you? You defeated him.."

"But that's because of sage mode and within 5-6 months he will surpass me or even the fourth Hokage Minato, his father!"

With Naruto..

"Your task is simple! you both have to get these bells before sunrise"

"Kakashi sensei you sure you want to fight me and Sakura at the same time ?" Naruto asked before their test began.

"Yeah!" Kakashi said lifting his head band and revealing his sharingan "I warn you, come at me with intent to kill or else you'll never get these bells"

After a moment ..

"Here I come" Naruto shouted throwing some shuriken at Kakashi who simply dodge it by ducking and replied with some of his shuriken. Naruto simply jumped in air to avoid it. To get Naruto, he threw some more at him, since Naruto is in the air he can't dodge it. He simply made a clone to move himself out of the way. As soon as he landed the clone transformed into giant shuriken and was just going to hurl it at Kakashi but he caught him.

"Your haste hasn't changed" 'He's improved from back then' Kakashi thought 'and not only that'. There stood one more Naruto holding kunie at Kakashi at point blank range, ready to poke him. "Alright start!" Said Kakashi and puffed out in smoke.

"Argh! You big dummies! You lost him!" Sakura shouted at Naruto. Before Naruto could say anything she started searching for Kakashi

"left.." she tried finding his presence on her left after five minutes she turned right "right.." after sometime she again turned "behind.." and then she looked above "above.."only to find blue sky and nothing else.

At this time Naruto gave a confused expression "Sakura?! What makes you think he'll be above us?"

"Don't act smart, you idiot! if you know where he is, then just spit it out" Sakura said with an irritating tone.

Hearing Sakura's words, Naruto's head went down and like in a depression tone he pointed to Kakashi who was hiding underground.

"What?! There's nobody.."

"He's hiding underground.." Naruto again said in the same tone of depression.

"What.. below!" Sakura shouted and punched the ground and *BOOM* everything shattered, the ground was destroyed (same as that shown in series).

"Gyahh!" Naruto shouted controlling himself "Eh?!" Naruto's doomed expression changed to shocked one.

'w..what insane power.. I don't think granny just taught her medical ninjutsu.. i think i should stop playing around Sakura or she'll kill me'

"Found you! Kakashi sensei!" Sakura smiled at Kakashi.

Kakashi wasn't shocked at this, he had known her strength all along because he went on many missions during these years.

Kakashi jumped and stood on a plane surface "since when did you figured I was hiding underground and how did you know my location?" Asked Kakashi.

"I knew it all along. Since we came here, you went underground using Earth style, leaving aclone to fight and since you used earth style, it didn't left a hole.. am i right sensei ?" Naruto explained everything.

"well done Naruto, you really have matured!" Kakashi Appreciated Naruto "alright then.. this time I should do something on my end too"

Kakashi was forming a hand seals for preparing a offensive technique but in an instant Naruto appeared in front of Kakashi and punched him 'so fast.. there's no time to avoid it.. must block' Kakashi thought

"What?! So fast!" Sakura was shocked, she didn't even see him moving.

Kakashi barely blocked by his right hand. Naruto started punching and kicking him which he managed to block, then Naruto side kicked him with his full strength, Kakashi saw through this so he brought his both the hands to his side to block it. Just as he blocked his kick, he was thrown crashing several yards.

Kakashi got up and felt pain in both of his arms "ahhh!"

"you should have taken me seriously" Naruto taunted Kakashi "I told you to take Sakura by your side sensei.."

'He's strong!.. even though I blocked his attacks, they were too strong and inflicted me more damage than I thought' Kakashi stood up "fine then, I think I should get serious too.."

"Sakura go and help him.. fight from his side" Naruto said "and don't argue, I'm dead serious"

"Fine but don't regret it!" Sakura said getting angry at Naruto.

After healing Kakashi, Sakura took her stance to fight "that won't be necessary Naruto. Sakura join him, this is going to be little bit messy around here.. GO NOW!" Kakashi said sternly.

She has seen Kakashi fight seriously, so without a question she went to Naruto's side. Kakashi stood there and did a hand sign, Naruto could fell that he was concentrating chakra in his left eye.

"Could it be.." Sakura was shocked to see Kakashi activate his mangekyou sharingan.

"Don't worry Sakura, I won't use it, this is just to anticipate Naruto's attacks"

"Hehehe.." Naruto laughed a little

"Get ready Naruto!" Said Kakashi and formed hand signs "FIRE STYLE: FIRE BALL JUTSU" a giant fire ball shot out of Kakashi's mouth. Naruto also went through hand signs and raised his hands in front of him "WIND STYLE: JADE WIND HURRICANE" a wide current of wind with great speed shot towards fireball.

Both Justus collided and exploded forming a giant sphere of fire engulfing whole area, but the collision seemed to be more towards Kakashi while the place where Naruto stood was not even touched.

Seeing the incoming blast Kakashi immediately formed hand signs "WATER STYLE: WATER VORTEX JUTSU". A vortex of water big enough to engulf the explosion shot towards Naruto and Sakura. Evaporation of water decreased the visibility and before they could even see it vortex hit them, they were sent back crashing into woods clearing the whole area.

After a moment when everything settled down Naruto and Sakura stood up taking support of tree. There was a blue aura in front of Sakura, it was a wind shield created by Naruto to protect her. Even after use of wind shield, jutsu inflicted too much damage.

Sakura started healing Naruto without caring about herself "don't Sakura! Heal yourself first, don't worry about me I'm just a clone" said Naruto grabbing her hand.

"You protected her at the last moment, Naruto! But you shouldn't have used that wind style jutsu in the first place because wind is inferior to fire, it only made flames more intense.." Kakashi explained

"That's precisely why I used more stronger jutsu, as you can see it was much more intensified and was directed towards you, but I never thought you would use a giant vortex.." after saying this Naruto vanished in smoke and the two Narutos came to Sakura's side "knowing you Kakashi sensei, you would have interpreted the same thing if it wouldn't have been me, right sensei?"

'He's getting more like you.. sensei' Kakashi thought

"Take care of Sakura, I'll get the bells" Naruto said to the clone and dashed towards Kakashi 'i'll have to finish this before I run out of chakra' naruto thought as sun was going down.

After a while of taijutsu fight between kakashi and Naruto, he came to know that this was a clone too. He had to dodge his every attack cause blocking caused damage. Naruto pushed him at one end and they were standing on water "WATER STYLE:WATER DRAGON JUTSU " Kakashi shouted.

A dragon formed out of water, shot towards Naruto. He jumped in air to avoid it and took out some shuriken in both hands. He threw shrunken in left hand, in a parabolic path to hit Kakashi from his side, he then threw another pack of shuriken straight at him which was in his right hand. Immediately he brought out some kunie and threw them too aiming nowhere in certain.

Kakashi anticipated Naruto's attack. Naruto blocked his one side and he can neither jump back to dodge it as second wave was just straight on him. Kakashi jumped to the other side on ground. He then noticed that there are some kunie coming towards him. Kakashi had no other choice but to break his jutsu and block the incoming cause there were too many that spread across wide area.

After the attack died, Naruto stood in front of Kakashi, panting. Both of them were tired after an hour of fighting. Sakura and Naruto appeared from the forest and attacked Kakashi, their attacks were synchronized and Kakashi was having having problem dodging them. However Naruto took it slow very slow on Kakashi this time he didn't hit him hard but he was fast to attack.

"Just.. one.. clean shot"Sakura was trying to get a clean hit on him but she wasn't able to, she tried to punched him in face but he just moved sideways only to get a kick from Naruto. Kakashi grabbed his leg, pulling him a little, Kakashi swing him. Naruto collided with tree and puffed out in smoke, suddenly Naruto came to place where his clone was hit, grabbing something he walked to Sakura's side.

Elsewhere...

Naruto was walking down the streets of konoha "wow that was amazing! Ichiraku ramen after these many years.. I'm stuffed... I don't know how my test is going on but I suppose he'll do it.. he does have more than half of my chakra".

After a while of walking "I didn't get any update after the clone was dispelled, there were two of them but still.. may be I should go and check myself.." Naruto suddenly felt a person that seemed to be following him "eh?!". He disappeared in a blurr and reappeared behind that person who was hiding behind a pole.


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto and Hinata ...

"Who are you?"Naruto asked but within few seconds he noticed that it was a girl with dark blue hair and lavender eyes, that shined in the street light. Yes it was none other than Hinata Hyuuga "Hey there Hinata! Why are you hiding here?"

'Naruto! he's only inches away' seeing Naruto this close after two and a half years, Hinata turned red and fainted.

"Hinata! Hey Hinata! Hinata...Hinata..." Naruto caught her before she touched the ground " I think she's not ok.. may be I should take her to granny"

At the Hokage tower..

Tsunade was giving a mission to a random four man squad and suddenly the door slammed open and Naruto entered with Hinata in his arms.

"Hey granny! could you please check on Hinata? she just passed out and probably has a bad fever" Naruto asked laying Hinata on the sofa.

"You have your orders, dismissed!" Tsunade said and the squad left.

While checking Hinata, Tsunade asked "weren't you supposed to be on the training ground for the test...? what are you doing here?"

"Well I can explain that gran-" Naruto suddenly felt a something and he smiled "looks like we passed!" Naruto said with a smile as a clone that hit the tree got dispelled and transferred the information to Naruto.

Tsunade was little confused but she brushed it away "well done Naruto! but why didn't Kakashi gave me report?"

"He'll give you. He'll be on his way!" Said Naruto, knowing that they got bells, it won't be too long before Kakashi arrives in Hokage's office.

"Well then.. Hinata's also fine, she just needs rest" thinking that everything was ok, she shrugged the thought of Naruto skipping the test, unaware of the fact that his clones were giving test.

"Ok then I'll go" Naruto took Hinata in his arms and left.

Meanwhile on training ground..

"You both did it! Naruto you have gotten stronger, beyond anybody's expectation and you Sakura, you too have improved very much.." Kakashi said deactivating his mangekyou sharingan.

"You shouldn't have hold back sensei! Hehehe!" Naruto said with smile.

"You don't know it's true power, Naruto.. the mangekyou sharingan's .. it's way too powerful for you to fight.. Kakashi sensei just used to anticipate your attack but I know it's full power.. don't underestimate him" Sakura explained to Naruto, unaware of Naruto's power.

Suddenly Kakashi fainted out of exhaustion. "Sakura take Kakashi sensei to the hospital" and before she could say anything Naruto vanished in smoke.

"Eh?!.. this one's clone too? Where the hell Naruto is?" Sakura got angry thinking that Naruto slipped out, leaving Kakashi behind.

With Naruto..

He was sitting on chair in his bedroom with Hinata sleeping on bed.

"It's already 9 and I'm hungry again.. maybe I should make something to eat.." Naruto got up from the chair and went to kitchen to prepare instant ramen.

He made his clones, clean his apartment before he brought Hinata in. They also got some kitchen stuff, more of a green vegetables and some instant ramen cups. Naruto boiled water and was holding a ramen cup "maybe I should make something else.. I don't think that Hinata would like ramen for dinner.."

After 20-30 min, Naruto was ready with food and brought it to Hinata, in a tray. Keeping the tray on table, Naruto tried to wake Hinata by pulling blanket off her.

"Wakeup Hinata! Your dinner is ready!" Naruto said shaking her a little.

"Umm.." Hinata moaned and open her eyes slowly. By taking support of bed she lifted herself up and sat. "Where am I?" She asked to herself taking a look around the room.

"You are at my place!"interrupted Naruto with a big smile.

She turned in the direction of voice and saw Naruto smiling at her "I'm at your place?!" Hinata asked in her timid voice turning red. But before Naruto could say anything, she fainted.

"Why does she do that when I'm around!" Naruto asked nobody in particular.

After five minutes her eyes opened slowly and started to scan the room, she noticed Naruto holding a tray with some food.

'Don't make any sudden movements' Naruto said to himself in his mind and plastering smile on his face.

"Naaruuto!" She squealed turning red.

"No .. no Hinata.. please don't faint!" Naruto pleaded

"Oh.. ss..or..ry" Hinata started to stutter in front of Naruto 'don't faint... don't faint' she was trying hard to keep up.

After Naruto was sure she wouldn't faint, he gave her the tray "here! have it, you must be hungry"

"Th..thank.. you.. Na..naruto!" Hinata said taking her share and started to eat.

"So.. how's it?"

"I..it's d..d..de..li.. Na..Naruto"

"Thanks Hinata!" And with that Naruto took a bite of it "ummm.. eh!?" *chokes* Naruto throws up running in kitchen.

"Don't eat it Hinata it's awful!" Naruto said taking plate from Hinata. She smiled at Naruto's stupidity and childish behavior.

"It w..was n..not...th..that ba..d" she said with a smile and all red face.

After 10 min..

"Here! it's instant ramen, it's not that good for health but way better than the last one" Naruto said sheepishly rubbing back of his head.

"Th..than..ks Na..Naruto" Hinata thanked Naruto for the food and started to eat.

"Hey Hinata!" Naruto called her name to get her attention.

"Umm y..yes Na.. ..to" Hinata acknowledged his call.

"Why do you always stutter and faint when I'm around?" Naruto asked and stared for a while to get an answer.

"Well.." Hinata Started playing with her hair with her free hand 'this is my chance, now I'll tell him how I feel... but what if he refuses?.. What if he gets angry?.. no why would he get angry... but what if he refuses.. may be I should take it slowly.. let him get to know first'

"Hey Hinata! you ok?" Naruto asked placing his hand on her shoulder.

"Ye..ah! I'm o..k.." Hinata said turning tomato red at Naruto's touch.

They kept on talking about random things for an hour or two and with time her confidence grew and stuttering decreased.

"You know Hinata, you are the first person that came to my apartment. It feels good to have somebody at home" Naruto said with a smile, he was too much happy to have her company.

"You mean no one's ever visited you?" Hinata knew he was alone but was shocked to know that not even his teammates. she was about to ask about Sakura but then stopped, she didn't want to hurt him anymore cause she knew Sakura has always rejected him.

"Yeah! I was all alone and because of something that wasn't even my mistake. I was made out cast" at this point Naruto was dejected and a tear rolled down his cheek.

Hinata reached his cheek and wiped it with her hand, it was so cute and adorable that there are no words to describe it "don't worry Naruto, now you have friends. And whenever you feel lonely you can use my company"

"Thank you Hinata!" Was all he could say but his eyes were full of happiness like never before. 'It's the same feeling as before when Sasuke acknowledged me as his equal, during chunin preliminary exam but this one feels like.. I'm not alone anymore, it's like, I mean something to her'

"Well it's 11 already, I think I should go now, Naruto!" Hinata got up from the bed and Naruto escorted her to the door.

"I'll drop you to the compound" Naruto offered her company.

Next day early morning in Hokage's office...

"So that's it?" Asked Tsunade after reading the report.

"Yeah! They both are good and ready" replied Kakashi "ready to go on a B-rank mission!"

"It seems that you underestimate him.." Jiraiya stated coming through the Window, just then the door to the office opened and Sakura entered. She took her place beside Kakashi and stood there without any question.

"That's not it lord Jiraiya, I think he's strong. He is already a jounin level shinobi but-" Kakashi was cutoff in middle by Jiraiya.

"Naruto is strong and to be frank he is stronger than you Kakashi"

"No way!" Sakura shouted in middle

"He's fast, that I agree. He was able to get the bells from me even when I used my mangekyou sharingan, but that's only because I was holding back" Kakashi explained to Jiraiya.

"Well that's good but you shouldn't have" Jiraiya said confusing everybody "what I mean is Naruto was also holding back cause he didn't wanted to hurt you" Jiraiya waited for a while to let them digest everything.

"How can you say this?" Asked Sakura

"Naruto didn't used any offensive ninjutsu and moreover, the one you were fighting all the time was just a clone of Naruto with half of his chakra"

This shocked everybody in the room and everything went back in flashback.

"So that's it.. after match was over, clone was dispelled. I thought Naruto ran away with the help of clone but I had no idea that he wasn't there the whole time"

Naruto was on his way to Hokage's office but on the way he came across Temari and Shikamaru Nara.

After some casual chitchat ..

"So Naruto.. what are you planning?" Asked Shikamaru Nara, the lazy genius of leaf.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked giving confused look.

"What, you say.. it's a chunin exam, you are the only one from our who hasn't become chunin" upon hearing this from Shikamaru Naruto was shocked.

"Ehhhhh?"Naruto shouted pulling his hair in frustration.

"Neji, Kankurou of the sand and Temari here are already jounin"

"I recently paid a visit to sand and I knew about them but Neji... he's something else, to be able to become jounin, he must be really strong.."

After his short talk with the duo, Naruto followed his way to the Hokage tower

In The Hokage's office..

"Tsunade, I'm here for a different matter" Jiraiya gave scroll to Tsunade "I'll be back within one or two weeks" and with that Jiraiya vanished and at the same time Naruto came in.


	4. Chapter 4

"Pervy sage was here, wasn't he?.. where is he gone?" Naruto asked

"Leave him be..." Tsunade said opening the scroll. As soon as she read it, she was shocked 'what?! How could this happen? I'll have to do this as soon as possible but for now Kakashi will take care' Tsunade stood up "everyone to the mission hall".

In the hall..

There were many people sitting in front of team Kakashi and Hokage was in middle of them. Iruka Umino, Naruto's closest thing to family was sitting next to Tsunade.

"Ehhh! that mission.. no thanks.."Naruto shouted in denial of mission giving disgusted look.

"Eh.. what kind of response is that? Well!?" Tsunade said giving irritated look.

'Please Don't talk so selfishly.. she'll get angry at me' Kakashi said in his mind looking at Naruto.

"Gah.. Naruto, you haven't mentally matured at all.." Iruka spoke at Naruto's behavior.

"Sorry sensei, I'll sort him out" Sakura grabbed Naruto to shut him ' I-idiot you have no idea how terrible she can be' inner Sakura shouted at him.

"Third was more sensible than you.." Naruto said while being choked.

"SHUT UP YOU PUNK!" Sakura shouted while tightening her grip on Naruto.

"It's bad! Lady Hokage"a women came running inside

"What is it?"

"Lord Kazekage of the sand has been captured by the organisation called Akatsuki" she said and handed message to Tsunade. Everyone in the hall were shocked.

"What?!" Naruto was shocked.

"Two members of the Akatsuki attacked the sand village" women said.

"Gaara!" Naruto clenched his fist and suddenly his chakra level started rising, this created a rise in air pressure in hall. Sakura was slightly pushed away just by pure chakra, but this chakra belonged to Naruto and not the nine tails. The floor started breaking apart and broken pieces of floor were rising above their level near Naruto.

"Naruto calm down!" Kakashi said grabbing Naruto's shoulder but It wasn't working.

Detecting sudden spike in chakra level, Anbu black ops showed up. Looking around the hall, Iruka ran to Naruto and standing in front of Naruto, he pleaded "Naruto please calm down!"

Naruto finally calmed looking in Iruka's eyes. He looked around and saw the cracked floor "I'm sorry" in low voice.

"Alright.. team Kakashi, you have a new mission" said Tsunade, holding the message "you are to go immediately to sand, find out the situation and relay it to konoha.. after that follow the orders of the sand and back them up"

At the village gates..

Tsunade and Iruka followed them to the gates, to wish luck.

"Do your best Naruto!" Iruka said smiling at Naruto

"Yeah" Naruto replied without turning.

"Off we go Lady Tsunade" Sakura waved Tsunade.

Suddenly Jiraiya appeared out of nowhere "yo! Going on a mission, eh Naruto?"

Naruto didn't gave any reply and continued to look down 'it's not like him.. umm more importantly' Jiraiya thought and then moved towards Tsunade until he reached her ear "bad news Tsunade, sand's Kazekage-" Jiraiya spoke in very low voice, so that Naruto couldn't hear but was cutoff "I know, and I'm about to send these guys there now"

Jiraiya moved away and called Naruto to speak with him alone " be very careful when it comes to the Akatsuki"

"They have got something against me so this time I'm going after them" Naruto spoke with determination.

"Yeah, you've gotten stronger and all.. but when you feel as though you're about to loose control, get a grip on yourself are you'll cause chaos" Jiraiya warned Naruto "you are short tempered Naruto.. I know, you know this but.. don't use that jutsu"

"I know.." Naruto's expression changed.

Walking away Jiraiya said "Kakashi make sure that he doesn't do anything stupid"

"Yeah"

Naruto turned to leave and called for Kakashi and Sakura "Kakashi sensei Sakura lets get going"

"W..wait for me, will you!" And with that being said, Sakura also took off. Now all three of them were out of everyone's sight.

In sand village...

"This kind of poison is new to us. We haven't found any kind of antidote" said a medic to Baki who was standing right next to Kankurou, who was lying in bed. He was kept in room which was in Kazekage's tower.

"If we don't hurry, then I'm afraid he won't make it. 3 days at the most" said another medic.

"Then I have no choice but them.." said Baki and left.

With Deidara and Sasori...

"You are late Sasori my man" Deidara said with an irritating tone cause he would always get same thing from Sasori.

"Don't get so irritated. We've got your target *one tails* after all" Sasori said hiding inside his puppet (A/N: appearance is same as in shippuden) "Now it's my turn. But I don't know where it is. It'd be much easier if it comes to us"

"Yeah! Speaking of which, which kind of Jinchuuriki is he" Deidara asked while walking towards their rendezvous point.

"I don't care as long as I get my Jinchuuriki"

"Sasori my man, village hidden in leaves is the closest to sand" Deidara started

"Hn.. what of it?" Asked Sasori knowing that Deidara would want another Jinchuuriki

"I was thinking-" Deidara was cut in middle.

"Don't even think about it, Deidara. As per the orders, we are not to go to the leaf village. It's Itachi and Kisame's task to get nine tails Jinchuuriki and nobody else is to interfere. Those were strict orders"

"Fine fine.. I get it!"

Elsewhere..

Naruto saw Temari ahead, on their way to sand. Naruto was about to give her a call but then suddenly "Temari!" Sakura shouted and everyone landed near her.

After a while of explaining situation to Temari.

"What! " 'Gaara' "I had a bad feeling.." her expression changed to sad one.

"It will take 3 days to reach sand village from here.. lets hurry" said Kakashi and everyone started in the direction of sand.

...

Two elderly persons were standing right next to Kankurou's bed. One of them is lord Ebizou and other one is lady Chiyo "poison is my specialty.. but even I don't know of this.." said lady Chiyo after 2 days of continuous hard work in developing antidote. Even she gave up the hope of Kankurou's survival. "Sasori has gotten better than ever"

"What should we do then?" Asked Baki, afraid of losing a powerful jounin.

"Well.. the one who has more knowledge of neutralizing poison than me is.. the slug queen of konoha, princess Tsunade.. during the great war she came up with an antidote to all the poisons that I created and mix them immediately.. all you can do is call her here for help" said Chiyo

"But she's the Hokage now, she can't leave the village so easily.. and even if we were to ask her, it would take 3-4 days to reach the sand from leaf.. but we've sent request for a specialist team.. it's taking all of our strength, waiting for them"

"Stop relaying on others, you've become careless with your own training and this is what becomes of it"

Suddenly the door to the room opened

"KANKUROU" Temari shouted and ran towards Kankurou and Sakura behind her. Naruto and Kakashi were still at the door and entered the room.

'Tha.. that's'"the White Fang of the Leaf" lady Chiyo saw Kakashi and said as loud as she can.

"Eh!?" There was a question mark on Kakashi's face

Suddenly Chiyo jumped and tried to punch Kakashi but before she could reach Kakashi, with lightning fast speed, Naruto appeared in front of him blocking her punch with his left hand.

After she saw that the boy blocked the punch, with another (left) hand she punched Naruto but it was also blocked just by two fingers, specifically index and middle fingers.

'This boy.. he's good' Chiyo thought and then she kicked Naruto in face and flipped away from him, but Naruto didn't even flinched.

He was just standing there like it was nothing.

"Why are you attacking Kakashi sensei, you old wrinkled hag!" Naruto said with hint of anger.

"I remember that time.. the white Fang of the leaf..! My son's enemy.. I'll get revenge for him today" said Chiyo

"No no...I'm not" Kakashi started in his defence but Chiyo interrupted

"There's no use in arguing" and she got ready for attack but Ebizou got in between and stopped her.

"Sister take a good look.. there's a strong resemblance but that's not him.."

"Eh!?" She stared for a while "no way.. I was just pretending to be stupid.. gyahaha.." and started laughing.

After an hour or so Sakura made preparations and removed the poison from Kankurou "Kankurou's fine for now, no need to worry about his life. Now I have to make antidote for what little poison that remained in his body. I need certain things" said Sakura taking lead role in situation.

Meanwhile in konoha..

"Team guy your mission is to go to the sand village and give support to team Kakashi" said Tsunade and dismissed them.

While Sakura was busy preparing antidote, Kakashi was busy in examining the remains of Kankurou's puppets.

"Temari I need all the informations on those two Akatsuki members that sand has collected so far.." asked Naruto

"Understood..!" She knew about Naruto's strength more than Kakashi and Sakura. She knew Naruto will ask her about it. After some time she got two scrolls that contained all information about the two who attacked sand.

After a while..

After learning about Akatsuki Naruto came back to see Kankurou and Sakura. To be more specific Naruto never made any plans or followed them, he would always go on instincts alone.

Meanwhile, Kakashi found Akatsuki's trail and team was ready to move.

The antidote that Sakura made, worked well on Kankurou and he returned to his consciousness.

"So Kankurou are you sure that one of the two you followed was Sasori of the Red sand?" Asked Chiyo

"Yeah.. it was him, he said it himself" said Kankurou with his head down.

"Sasori of the Red sand.. huh?" Kakashi confirmed "may we hear more about the Akatsuki?" And demanded more info.

"Right let's hurry" Naruto said stretching his body and getting ready.

Kankurou looking at his hand, past memories ran through his head, like Gaara saying that he wanted to become just like him, Naruto Uzumaki.

"Naruto Uzumaki" Kankurou called and Naruto turned to hear him "please save my brother" Kankurou pleaded

"Leave it all to me, I will save Gaara no matter what"

Granny Chiyo was standing in front of door in an unknown place. She unlocked the door to the room and took the two scrolls out of a certain chest.

"Are you planning to take those two?" And Ebizou

"I've lived too long as well.. for there is nothing better to fight him, than this"

Team Kakashi were out of the Kazekage building ready to leave for Gaara's retrieval mission.

"We'll send reinforcements as soon as the situation in village stabilizes" said Baki

"I'm going too!" Shouted Temari

"No Temari you can't. You have to guard southern wall. If word about Kazekage gets out foreign lands will try to attack and we have to be prepared"

"What! no way! Gaara is abducted and I'm not going to sit around and do nothing"

"Temari, you stay in village, I will go!" Granny Chiyo said standing on top of a building.

"But lady Chiyo that would be too much for you" Baki said looking at granny who was on top of a building.

"Don't underestimate me" Chiyo said jumping.

Elsewhere in cave..

"How long it's gonna take? My shoulders are getting stiff" said an unknown man which was just a projection of his real self, standing on fingers of big statue. There were nine of them standing on different fingers.

"Shut up Hidan!" Said figure beside him.

"It's been just one day. More two days to go from now on" a man said who had a ripple pattern in his eyes.

Team Guy

"We've been running for an entire day, I'm tired let's take a break already" Tenten said while jumping through forest.

"Tenten, you lack discipline" Lee said turning back to Tenten.

"... !" Neji sensed a presence

"Wait Guy!" Pakkun said standing on a branch of a tree.

"Pakkun!"

"Akatsuki had abducted Kazekage and they have headed towards river country, team Kakashi is on their way. Follow me, I'll explain everything on the way"

Elsewhere ..

Zetsu who was hiding in a tree, felt the presence of chakra heading in the direction of hideout. Zetsu is more of a sensor type than a combat type. He sensed the chakra from several kilometers away.

In cave..

"Enemy from konoha is approaching our hideout" Zetsu stated while extraction of beast was proceeding.

On hearing this, leader of Akatsuki sent a man to stop them or rather buy them some time for extraction.

With team Guy..

"Someone's coming!" Pakkun said turning back while running through rocky plains.

"Byakugan!" Neji started searching for proximity and as soon as he found it, he shouted "behind us!" and everyone stopped to take a look.

*boom*and something came out of ground wrapped in bandages. It was moving towards group at great speed. Before it could hit the group, everyone jumped away. It collided with rock boulder behind them.

After collision died, a man stood on the place where once was boulder. He welded something wrapped in bandages, like sword, it was resting on his shoulders.

"You are.." Guy said looking at the person. He was Kisame Hoshigaki with his sword Samehada.

"You know him Guy sensei?" Asked lee

"Who are you?" Guy asked

"..." Tenten

"Ah, it looks like Bizarre Beast is dumb as well" Kisame smiled in excitement "I might as well refresh your memories"

"... wha-what an overwhelming chakra!" Neji was shocked to see the amount of chakra "I've never seen anyone with this much amount of chakra since Naruto"

Kisame threw his sword in air and formed some hand signs "Water style: Exploding shock wave" huge amount of water was summoned by Kisame and with that the fighting started.

With Naruto..

"Naruto can I ask you a question?" Sakura asked as the team was moving through the woods.

"?" Naruto gazed towards Sakura.

"Since when did Akatsuki started targeting you?"

"I don't know.."

"While ago.. two of the Akatsuki members infiltrated leaf village in order to contact Naruto. It's been 3 years since then, they have started moving. Though I can't see the motive behind this" Kakashi explained

"Then why did they wait for 3 years?"

"I assume that they wanted to but couldn't, probably because lord Jiraiya was with him" said Kakashi while running through forest.

"No that's not it. Few months ago we came across Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki, and I was still around pervy sage" Naruto said after hearing Kakashi.

"The information I have gives different reasons" finally granny started talking.

"Different reasons?" Naruto asked curiously.

"It takes a lot of preparation to pull out a beast once it is sealed inside a person. That's why they were delayed"

"No that's not it" said Naruto "the Akatsuki is filled with all S-ranked criminals, who are very strong. They are the most wanted criminals in their own village. Like Itachi, he was a prodigy, he become Anbu captain at the age of 14. He killed every single Uchiha except one, that showed extent of his powers. Orochimaru is also a S-ranked criminal. 3 years ago he attacked leaf village and was able to take down the third Hokage. Same goes for Kisame Hoshigaki, he killed his former comrades and teacher without any mercy."

"What? Orochimaru is also a member of Akatsuki?" Asked Sakura with a shocked expression.

"He was, but now he's also a foe for Akatsuki. The reason why he left is still unknown" Naruto explained.

"But what does it have to do with the delay?" Asked Chiyo

"Well.. to gather a team of S-ranked criminals and give them a same common motive is very difficult. For any shinobi, it's like an impossible task. First you have to search them and then convince them to join you. And even after the forming Akatsuki, the most difficult task is to find a Jinchuuriki. They are scattered across the world, some of them left the village and went rogue due to the treatment of people, and one cannot differentiate between a Jinchuuriki and common shinobi. This takes a lot of time to form an organization this strong and to hunt beast. This is precisely why they have to wait." Naruto explained in detail.

Meanwhile..

"There are more incoming, they are from konoha" said Zetsu while sealing was in progress.

"It's bit crazier this time around, Deidara" said the leader

"Well this Jinchuuriki was stronger than other two and moreover they weren't Jinchuurikis" said Deidara in his defence.

"I tried to tell you, your techniques aren't good for stealth mission." Said Sasori

"Hn.. call me crazy, but I remember your traps were bit excessive too, master Sasori"

"What did you say!" Shouted Sasori with a anger.

"Enough both of you! concentrate on sealing.." ordered leader took a look around "now who will go this time?"

"Let me go this time! I haven't found my Jinchuuriki and its driving me crazy" Said a random guy in cave standing on finger on a statue.

"It's Hatake Kakashi with the Nine Tails Jinchuuriki Uzumaki Naruto" said Zetsu looking at Itachi.

"Well then it's decided!" Said their leader.

With team Kakashi...

"Everyone stop!" Said Kakashi as they landed on ground. There was a person standing in front of them in Akatsuki's robe.

"Itachi Uchiha!" Naruto let out with hint of anger in his tone.


End file.
